This
morning, Holy Thursday, the day before Good Friday, in that half awake and
half dream state, God showed me something.

He confirmed that the Kingdom of God is about Love. That being a Christian
is about servitude and loving others. That the only way the world can be healed
is through Love, passed from one to another. That humbleness, love and caring
for each other are what He is about and what the Kingdom of God has always
been about. Love for God and love for each other...all of us together. That
is how God has always wanted us to be.

Then
He revealed to me, if I only prayed for other people…that it would be
enough.

Let
me explain.

I
have always prayed for others when I have received prayer requests and have
thought and prayed for people when they came to my mind. But I realized that
my prayer life was mainly praying for myself and my concerns first, and praying
for others second, as an after thought.

When
the Lord spoke to me, I thought of the people I usually gravitate to: my lover,
my close friends, my family, the persons from my fellowship and church, but
then...the list starting getting LONGER!

I
began to think of my employer and workmates, casual acquaintances, long lost
friends, friends whom I had hurt and those who hurt me, including past loves.
And then I went on to persons I disliked and had sour experiences with; persons
whom I let down and no longer spoke with, and the list kept going…to
my childhood. Children whom I was friends with, children whom I had called
names, teased and taunted and who did the same to me, but it still didn't
stop. I went on to think of people who suffer and are discriminated against,
not just here but around the world.

My
prayer list was overwhelming.

It
was then that I realized that God desired me to pray for all these people.
And no I was not able to do it ALL in that one sitting, but I realized that
from now on...I needed to pray for a few people at a time and continue down
my list each time I prayed. Up until then, my prayers were always the same:
my problems, my concerns, my frustrations and my future.

And
yes I did pray for others but they were for the same people with some variations
depending on the prayer requests I received. But after awhile or when the
prayers and situations were resolved, I would go back to praying for my own
stuff with the same requests.

But
God showed me this morning, that if I just pray for someone else, I will think
on them, wonder how they might be and I would then be involved in their lives
and welfare. I would pray for their work, their needs, their hopes and their
concerns...and I would be loving on them.

If
I prayed for someone else, my thoughts would dwell on them and I would be
more apt to contact and visit with them and ask God to send MORE love to them.
In that way, I am blessed as well.

Just
as Jesus told us the greatest commandments were to Love God and Love our neighbors
as ourselves, I saw that my prayers needed to be of thanksgiving and blessings
to God first, prayers for other people second and prayers for myself last.

This
goes so counter to how I had been praying for most of my Christian life. To
pray to God about all MY affairs, problems and concerns FIRST...and then I
might think about others...if I had the time... and then I would thank Him.
And all of this done quickly, because I hadn't set aside time in my "busy"
schedule for prayer.

But
foremost, it had always been...Me, me, me, me and ME.

In
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said to not worry about what we will eat or
drink because God already knows what we need. He also said to not fall into
repetitive prayers. I saw that when I pray for myself…it is always the
same prayer: help me, bless me, heal me, fix this, change that. All these
years, I had prayed the same old repetitive prayers for myself, over and over.
God had already heard my wishes so many times before and was always faithful
to answer me, yet I kept repeating them to Him.

But
when I prayed for someone else, I didn’t know what he or she needed.
It was the unknown. So if I prayed for them, I would then contact the person
and our friendship and love would become stronger. Now I see, this is how
God wants the process to be. By praying for each other, we become involved
with each other and can only LOVE each other more.

This I believe is how God wants me to pray.

And
this morning He said that if I just prayed for others, I would also be praying
for myself. I would not need to pray for myself because in caring for others,
that was how I would care for myself.

So
I began to think about the people in my life. I asked God to bless this one
because of their struggle and bless that one because they were recovering
from an accident and I realized if I prayed for everyone else, other than
myself, that it would be enough.

Of
course I will continue to pray for sickness, wars, disasters and the struggles
of the world, but these requests will come before my own petitions for convenience,
comfort and security because the Lord already knows all about me.

And
finally I will end with the Lord's Prayer. The prayer that Jesus taught us.

God
desires us all to care for each other. We all focus way too much on our own
activities. But in order for Christ to work, we need to pass His love to others,
not only in words and actions but ALSO in prayer.

We
are all very immature Christians and the list of our wants is very long. But
if we instead focus on people...our friends, our relatives, our ex-friends,
our ex-loves, persons in our church, at our work, in our nation, in other
nations, the homeless, the sick and struggling…if our thoughts petitioned
God to help and heal others, our concerns would be for them and that in turn
would beckon us to take actions to DO SOMETHING to help and be good to EVERYONE.

In
the same way that Christ humbled Himself and was a servant, He asks us to
do the same. In putting God first and our neighbors second, we will be able
to unleash God powerful Love and Grace onto the World.

Instead
of meditating on how God can fix our problems to get through this earthly
life, pray that God will fix someone else’s problems and help someone
else’s life.

When
we do that, we will see that our actions will change us from one of selfish
preoccupation to one of a mindful servant, as Christ was to us. In this way
our Light is shining and our prayers will touch all those around us and come
back to shine on us.

Make
a list of all the people in your life and those outside of it. Whether good
friends, strangers, or enemies, ask God to bless them, enter their lives,
give them goodness and make them happy. You will see that your heart will
get bigger and the World will start to change because of it.